Whatever happend to freedom of expression and French liberalism?

So France has banned the wearing of the burqa. To be precise, the law bans any full face coverings, but it's been known for a long time that it targets wearers of the burqa.

I think it's a ridiculous law.

I'm not pro-wearing the burqa, and I'm well aware that the wearing of the burqa is a personal choice, and not a must have of the religion. The crux of the matter is about personal choice as long as it does not affect the workings of society. If one pursues a career as a teacher in a secular school..., then obviously there would be some issues as to the wearing of it with regards to communications. And in such circumstance, prohibition of a full body covering would be fine. But otherwise, does it really affect communication? I see no real way in which the wearing of the burqa hampers interaction except in cases where a persons face NEEDS to be seen, in which case the prohibition is fair. So they should balance out on that end. Want to drive a car? Face on license must be exposed, be prepared to show your face when necessary for license checks, etc. But otherwise, no big deal.
Not all barriers in communication are physical, some are entirely mental and self-imposed. If someone was not being genuine or open, was purposely distorting how they were, lying, etc, would those not also be barriers? This is without even going into culture and other forms of noise that affect communication. A physical barrier like a burqa is the smallest problem when it comes to general conversations in civil society. Also, having observed quite a few people in such clothing conversing with each other, or other people, the body language is generally quite clear.

This ban is exceedingly general, affecting people in their regular public life. Granted, terrorists could use it as a disguise(there have been such cases), but then again, they could use anything as a disguise and find other ways to do what they need to do. It's not as if the 9/11 crew were wearing burqas when they boarded the planes, took their flight lessons, etc. The 7/7 bombers were also clad in regular clothing, and their bombs were in backpacks. Should we outlaw all backpacks on that basis? Or do we just target people of a certain look and colour when checking backpacks?
The closest official estimate is that two thousand people wear it, in a country of five to six million Muslims. And most estimates say that a large number of those who wear it are converts. And the entire Muslim population makes up only 10% of the French population. So. 2000 out of 6000000 people. That would be 0.15% of the Muslim population. Which means it's 0.015% of the total population, right? Maths is not my strong suit, so if I'm wrong please tell me. The police are hardly going to have to go up to thousands of people wearing them each day. AAnd going back to the above argument about regular garb, if an officer approaches someone who is a suicide bomber, chances are they would be blown up before they could react properly. They are trained to do react in such a way, if they feel they cannot reach the target objective. This ban is therefore akin to Switzerland banning minarets, although they only have four of them. All this talk about security is moot anyway. It was never raised by the French parliament, and the police are not going to be working very hard to enforce it anyway.

This ban is more a reaction to a sign of conservative Muslims, to the growing presence of Islam, than it is about security, or it not fitting in with their views on how women should be treated, as Sarkozy himself said. It's not a Sharia-related thing, it's a populist measure to get votes by an unpopular leader. If anything, this could potentially worsen the situation, as it solidifies the mentality that there is a war being waged on Islam itself. "SEE! THEY SAY PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE FREEDOM TO WORSHIP HOW THEY WANT, THEY SAY PEOPLE SHOULD BE GIVEN FREEDOM TO BE THEMSELVES, BUT SEE WHAT THEY DO?! FREEDOM FOR ALL EXCEPT MUSLIMS! INFIDELS!" I can completely imagine someone saying that. And, sadly, people believing that. Worse possible move ever. Alienate the evolutionists, cause moderates to regress, cause conservatives that were open to change to fall back to the fundamentals and ultimately setting the country up as one of the big enemies of Islam, as the terrorist propaganda would say....yeah. Worse possible move.

Now some will argue that France is a secular country governed by civil law and not Sharia law, so why condone such clothing. Firstly, I want to say that the two are not incompatible. Singapore is a secular country governed by civic law that has its roots in the Bible, like most Western countries. What Sharia law we have for the Muslim population applies more to matters on running of household, setting up of will, marriage(and even on that count, not so much) But you don't see us banning the burqa, although there are quite a number of wearers, and we live in a region with high extremist sentiment. Secondly, and this is more important, when you trumpet how you allow people religious freedoms, and talk about equality and freedom of speech, stepping in and banning people from following their religion in a way they feel comfortable, which harms no one else, is exceedingly hypocritical. You say you dislike it, that it is a sign of oppression or repression and does not fit in with the values of your country, and human dignity. But is what you are doing any different from those who force women to wear it? Not all women wear it because they are forced to, in France and in other parts of the world. There ARE women who are forced too, and I support the provision in the law that punishes those who force women to dress like that. But aren't the women who voluntary wear it being punished and oppressed for the actions of others? Others who aren't even of the same gender as them? Ironic law, is it not?

I'm all for balancing individual rights against the needs of a society. I don't believe it should all be too much one way or another. That's why I don't think abolishing the ISA is a good idea, though how it is used must be regulated, and there must be monitoring of it when used. And I think that while freedom of speech is all well and good, there must be limits to it, at least in line with common sense responsibilities, not like how America does it.
But at the same time, telling people they cannot practice their religion in a manner they feel comfortable, when it does not harm anything or anyone else, is going too far.

One other argument raised against it also is that if the wearing of the burqa is all allowed, then maybe we should all go around wearing masks. See how long society works when that happens. As for that, who knows? Society has a tendency to judge people based on how they look and what colour their skin is, it would level the playing field a lot and teach people to look at the internal as opposed to the external. And if people had to work harder to make their intent and meaning known, and if people had to actually listen for the meaning of the words instead of just taking things at face value, reacting because of how a person may look, etc, well, it may actually lead to a more civil discourse. It's one of the reasons given by those who wear the burqa voluntarily, that they are not treated differently as women based on their looks, when they don such. Not in countries used to it, at least.
As it is, societies are rather dysfunctional without the wearing of the masks and all. How many relatives are wearing something over their head when they kill each other? How many people who've abused kids were wearing something as they hit that person?
Of course, again, we're focusing on physical, actual masks here. Almost everyone has a few masks they wear, at different places, in different situations, with different people. I think those masks are the ones more likely to cause problems then this one.

Democracy is such that you can voice your displeasure at the idea, no problem, but actively shutting down the source of your displeasure(a small one at that) like this is authoritarian territory. For just as how you are entitled to voice your displeasure in a democracy, so are those that displease allowed to do, or wear, whatever they want as long as it does not hurt any one. France would do well to remember that.

I wonder, does this mean people will not be allowed to cover their faces on Halloween too? This law is supposed to ban all full face coverings right?